New tax proposals to swell exchequer

New tax proposals including 10 per cent surcharge on super rich and higher duties on mobiles, cigarettes and SUVs will help government garner Rs 18,000 crore in 2013-14.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech today said, "My tax proposals on the direct taxes side are estimated to yield Rs 13,300 crore and on the indirect taxes side Rs 4,700 crore."

As part of budget proposals for direct taxes, the Finance Minister imposed a surcharge of 10 per cent on persons (other than companies) whose taxable income exceeds Rs 1crore.

Besides, surcharge has been doubled to 10 per cent on domestic companies whose taxable income exceeds Rs 10 crore. For foreign companies, surcharge has been raised from 2 per cent to 5 per cent, if the taxable income exceeds Rs 10 crore.

These additional surcharges would be in force for only one year. However, education cess would continue at 3 per cent.

At the same time, the Finance Minister has provided tax relief of Rs 2,000 for the Tax Payers in the first bracket of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

With regards to indirect taxes, the Finance Minister proposed raising excise duty on SUVs from 27 per cent to 30 per cent while on mobile phones priced above Rs 2,000 it has been raised to 6 per cent from the current 1 per cent.

Cigarettes will cost more as specific excise duty increased by about 18 per cent. Similar increases are proposed on cigars and cigarillos.